Happiness is desirable AND we live amidst tremendous political, social, cultural, and personal turmoil. We experience the effect of the sorrow in Kathmandu, the power of the rage in Baltimore, the result of the fear in the Middle East. Add to all these energies in the world around us our own personal challenges related to health, finances, relationships, etc. and we can understand how our ability to feel happy, content, satisfied, can be easily compromised.

Even so within and all around this amazing planet we call home, joy is present. Happiness is alive. While finding the joy and connecting with the happiness is challenging in the midst of chaos, it is a practice worth developing.

Can you contact happiness when you feel grief? For what is grief but the longing for happiness once had or hoped for. Give thanks for happiness you felt with or about whoever or whatever you grieve. Feel that happiness again now.

Can you know love when you are angry? For what is anger but the expression of the inner longing to be seen, understood, and loved. Give thanks for a time you received or gave love to a person, plant, animal or object. Feel that love again now.

Can you find peace when you are scared? For what is fear but the mistaken belief that one person, place, society, or religion is separate from the rest of life on Earth. Give thanks for a time you felt connected to something greater than yourself. Feel that connection again now.

Tapping into our vitality, we acknowledge and turn our thoughts and emotions so as to bring more happiness, love and peace through into the world.